- US Senate advances resolution to block Trump from using military in Venezuela
Source: The Hill
“Five Senate Republicans voted Thursday to advance a bipartisan resolution on the War Powers Act to block President Trump from using military force against Venezuela, a proposal that if enacted would unravel the administration’s plan to take control of Venezuela’s oil exports. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the sponsor of the bipartisan measure, voted with Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) to discharge the resolution out of committee and bring it to the floor. A vote to pass the resolution itself is expected next week — or possibly later Thursday, if there is bipartisan agreement to speed up its timing on the floor. The resolution still needs to pass the House — where a similar measure failed in a close vote last month — and it faces a certain veto from Trump.” [editor’s note: This is bass-ackward. Unless Trump gets affirmative permission in the form of a declaration of war, he has no authority to attack Venezuela – TLK] (01/08/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5679123-venezuela-trump-war-powers-act-senate
- Greece: Farmers block highways in protest over rising costs and EU trade deal
Source: Seattle Times
“Farmers in Greece escalated nationwide protests Thursday, launching a 48-hour blockade of major highways, junctions and toll stations over soaring production costs and a contentious European Union trade deal with South American nations. Tractors lined key routes across the country, halting all traffic except emergency vehicles. Police directed traffic to secondary routes when possible and did not intervene to counter the blockades. But the country’s conservative government has warned that it would not tolerate more extended blockades. The country’s main highway connecting Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki was shut in both directions at several points, as farmers demanded stronger state support and the rejection of the EU-Mercosur agreement.” (01/08/26)
- MN: Infamous “Quality Learing Center” is now closed, records show
Source: New York Post
“They’re officially ‘klosed’ for business. Quality ‘Learing’ Center — the shady Minnesota day care at the center of the state’s mushrooming fraud scandal — shuttered for good this week, according to records. The much-ridiculed day care, which operated under a misspelled sign until it was fixed last month amid national outrage, closed Tuesday after it requested a closure of its license, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services and the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). The center found itself under the national spotlight after conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley featured the facility in a video highlighting day care centers in the state that were allegedly receiving public funds but were not providing any services.” (01/08/25)
- NASA cancels spacewalk, may end current space station crew’s mission early due to medical issue
Source: CBS News
“A spacewalk planned for Thursday outside the International Space Station was called off late Wednesday because of a ‘medical concern’ with an unidentified crew member, NASA said in a statement. An update shortly before midnight said the agency was exploring ‘all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew 11’s mission.’ … Going into the new year, the crew expected to remain in space until their replacements arrive in mid-February. Crew 11’s return to Earth is expected around Feb. 20. That’s still the official plan.” (01/08/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/an-astronaut-medical-concern-prompts-nasa-to-delay-planned-spacewalk/
- “Yankees Go Home!” Colombians Demand at Mass Protests Against Trump Threats
Source: Common Dreams
“Colombian President Gustavo Petro struck a relatively diplomatic tone Wednesday at a rally in Bogotá, where he spoke about the Trump administration’s threats to launch military strikes against his country—but thousands of people who gathered in the Colombian capital and across the country were happy to say exactly what they thought of US President Donald Trump’s recent attack on neighboring Venezuela and his saber-rattling across Latin America. ‘He’s a maniac,’ 67-year-old José Silva told the Guardian at a march in the border city of Cúcuta. ‘The US Congress needs to do something to get him out of the presidency … He’s a thug’ … Colombians were rallying after Petro called for a mass mobilization days after Trump ordered a military attack in Venezuela, including a bombing and the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.” (01/08/25)
- Murder in Minneapolis: Time to Stop Coddling the ICE Gang and Its Enablers
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“The evildoers are a centrally commanded paramilitary force. Yes, they’re violent wannabes who are too lazy, incompetent, or evil to find real jobs, but their sociopath bosses give them effectively unlimited funding and access to advanced weaponry. The forces of good, on the other hand, are everyday Americans (and immigrants) who’d really rather be left alone to make their livings doing productive work. No central command. No guaranteed paychecks courtesy of the nation’s tax slaves. Few automatic weapons. Believe it or not, that asymmetry can actually work to the benefit of the good guys. As satisfying — and as justified — as it would be to send these hoodlums home in body bags when they get violent, another recent incident in the Minneapolis area shows a more peaceful, and more effective, way forward.” (01/08/26)
- “The Last Generation of Freedom?” The Quiet Growth of Global Surveillance Culture
Source: The Daily Economy
by Mohamed Moutii“When the internet went mainstream at the turn of the twenty-first century, it was widely celebrated as a revolutionary force for freedom and democracy. Its decentralized architecture promised to empower individuals, expand free expression, and weaken the grip of authoritarian states. Many believed that open information flows would make censorship obsolete and repression impossible to maintain. That optimism has not merely faded — it has been decisively overturned. The same technologies once hailed as instruments of liberation are now being repurposed as tools of surveillance, censorship, and control. What is unfolding is not a sudden collapse of digital freedom, but a slow, structural transformation of the internet itself — one that is quietly reshaping how power operates in the digital age.” (01/08/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-last-generation-of-freedom/
- Trump Is Ensuring That His Venezuela Attack Has No Upside for Anyone
Source: The UnPopulist
by Nicholas Grossman“The United States military captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, and while many reactions focus on Maduro himself, that’s mostly beside the point. His government is repressive and illegitimate, having stolen Venezuela’s most recent election in 2024, but there are numerous bad governments in the world. The most important question before forcibly removing a foreign head of state is if it will make things better. On every stated and possible U.S. goal, this will more likely make things worse.” (01/08/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/trump-is-ensuring-that-his-venezuela
- A Social Security Off-Ramp?
Source: Law & Liberty
by Thomas Savidge“‘Trump accounts’ will not stave off Social Security failure, but they could point the way to reform.” (01/08/26)
- Venezuelans Are Right to Hate the US Government
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“One can fully understand any hatred that Venezuelan citizens might now have for the U.S. government. Just think: the U.S. government is now openly supporting the brutal tyranny under which the Venezuelan people have long suffered under the illegitimate Chavista regime. Why shouldn’t they hate the U.S. government? Last summer, there was no international crisis in Venezuela. Then, as the Epstein rebellion within the MAGA movement began, President Trump began initiating a new international crisis, one that involved amassing a gigantic military armada off the Venezuelan coast. Immediately, the MAGA rebellion dissipated, as MAGA members, predictably, patriotically and loyally rallied to the flag of Trump, the Pentagon, and the CIA.” (01/08/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/01/08/venezuelans-are-right-to-hate-the-u-s-government/
- The Real Tyrannical Regime
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Right wingers are like ‘Listen to Venezuelans! No, not the Venezuelans in the streets demanding Maduro’s return. No, not the polls saying most people in Venezuela oppose US regime change. Those are the wrong Venezuelans. I meant listen to the Venezuelan talking to Fox News from his mansion in Miami.’ They’re like, ‘Trump needed to invade Venezuela and abduct its president because otherwise that poor country would be victimized by the whims of a despotic tyrant!’ Actually fellas I’m pretty sure the real tyrannical regime is the one who’s claiming the entire western hemisphere is their personal property and they get to control what happens in every country on half the planet.” (01/08/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/08/the-real-tyrannical-regime/
- On the Government’s Diet
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“One could argue that our dietary habits are something government shouldn’t be involved in.
I do. But the federal government taxes, regulates, subsidizes, and researches for food production in these United States ‘bigly.’ And then the government taxes, regulates, subsidizes and researches for medical interventions that mitigate the consequences of how we eat. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Brooke L. Rollins, the current secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA), respectively, have signed their names to a new set of Dietary Guidelines for Americans — an interesting document. ‘The message is simple,’ it says: ‘Eat real food.’ The fact that much of our food industry has been constructed in collaboration with the USDA makes this advice … piquant.” (01/08/26)https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/01/08/on-the-governments-diet/
- With Venezuela, the US Is Back in the Business of Empire
Source: The Intercept
by Gabriel Hetland“Venezuela posed no threat to the United States, and under international law, there is no plausible justification for Trump’s attack. But it goes beyond that: By forcefully deposing a sitting president, the U.S. has eroded any pretense that the already-battered rules-based international order exists. While many of Trump’s critics in government and policy circles bemoan his flouting of procedure, Trump operates as a blatant imperialist — and is immensely proud of it.” (01/08/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/01/08/venezuela-maduro-trump-oil-american-empire/
- Sick of Illegal Wars and Staggering Healthcare Costs? Blame Congress
Source: OtherWords
by Lindsay Koshgarian“At a time when nearly half of Americans say they’re struggling to afford basic necessities, President Donald Trump has turned his attention to invading and ruling Venezuela. One in two Americans are having trouble affording groceries, utilities, healthcare, housing, and transportation, according to a recent poll. Healthcare costs are rising (in many cases doubling) for millions of Americans because Republicans in Congress refuse to help. And while grocery prices remain high, those same GOP lawmakers chose to cut food stamps for millions of struggling people. Our government should be helping working people and families. Instead, the president chose to use our tax dollars to invade a foreign country.” (01/07/25)
https://otherwords.org/congress-must-stop-this-war-and-help-working-americans-instead/
- Trump Once Again Failed the Decency Test
Source: Persuasion
by Luke Hallam“In late November, Andrew Sullivan published a Substack post that has really stuck with me. Titled ‘The Question of Decency,’ Sullivan was writing in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s dehumanizing ‘Quiet, piggy’ comment to a female reporter on Air Force One. Sullivan was lamenting the extent to which American discourse has degraded, the way that cruelty and spite have become regular features of politics. He was also commenting on the extent to which the president of the United States himself is leading this new era of indecency. I was reminded of Sullivan’s article yesterday watching the news unfold of a U.S. citizen being shot dead by a federal agent in Minneapolis. The Trump administration’s reaction to the killing ranks as one of the most indecent displays of political cynicism and outright cruelty in recent memory.” (01/08/26)
- Meritocracy vs. Credentialocracy
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Steven Kritz“Given that the 1980s and 1990s were in the wheelhouse of every Baby Boomer’s working career, I could see where the attitude would be that getting an education and working hard would lead to success. Extrapolating this thinking to the younger generations, it would make sense for Boomers to believe that the younger generations, having an even higher percentage with a college degree, just need to keep working hard and they will also achieve the same level of success. However, there are several major flaws in this thought process.” (01/08/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/meritocracy-vs-credentialocracy/
- Plunging Into the Abyss: Will the US and Russia Abandon All Nuclear Restraints?
Source: TomDispatch
by Michael Klare“For most of us, Friday, February 6, 2026, is likely to feel no different than Thursday, February 5th. It will be a work or school day for many of us. It might involve shopping for the weekend or an evening get-together with friends, or any of the other mundane tasks of life. But from a world-historical perspective, that day will represent a dramatic turning point, with far-reaching and potentially catastrophic consequences. For the first time in 54 years, the world’s two major nuclear-weapons powers, Russia and the United States, will not be bound by any arms-control treaties and so will be legally free to cram their nuclear arsenals with as many new warheads as they wish — a step both sides appear poised to take.” (01/08/25)
- Bernie Sanders’s Clumsy and Dangerous Melody
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Isaias Lobão“Imagine yourself sailing on a boat through a serene and breathtaking sea. The waters shine around you, inviting and attractive, but they hide grave dangers ahead. This is ‘listening to the mermaid’s song’ — being deceived by something that, while it sounds charming, leads to ruin. … While strolling through the launch section of a bookstore in Brasilia, I came across a work that can be seen as a true modern siren song: the Portuguese translation of the book It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by US Senator Bernie Sanders (Cia das Letras, 2024). Such work exemplifies how appealing ideologies can seduce audiences with seemingly irresistible but misleading and destructive promises. Like the sailors of antiquity, many may be tempted by these ideas without realizing the underlying dangers they carry.” (01/08/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/bernie-sanderss-clumsy-and-dangerous-melody
- A Lawless Presidency
Source: Judging Freedom
by Andrew P Napolitano“President Donald Trump violated his sworn and paramount obligations to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution when he ordered his invasion of Venezuela without congressional authorization and when he attacked a member state of the U.N. without U.N. authorization. James Madison himself argued at the Constitutional Convention that if a president could both declare war and wage war, he’d be a prince; not unlike the British monarch from whose authority the 13 colonies had just seceded. And the American drafters of the U.N. Charter, indeed American senators who voted to ratify it, understood that its very purpose was to prevent unlawful and morally unjustified attacks by one member nation upon another.” (01/08/26)
- Trump’s Attack on Venezuela: Wrong Even If It Were Legal
Source: Common Dreams
by Robert C Koehler“Oh good. Now we have a war to focus on. Everyone’s tired of Epstein by now, and tired of the possibility that the bad guy may be, ho hum, our own national leader, aka, the commander in chief. So the commander in chief has stepped in for the sake of the public good, bestowing on America a far more traditional enemy to hate and fear and let dominate the headlines: narco-terrorists. I’m still trying to grasp the fact that President Donald Trump has actually invaded Venezuela. He’s no longer simply bombing boats in the ocean.” (01/08/25)
- The Spirit of the Laws
Source: Liberal Currents
by Guillaume AW Attia“In the words of legal scholar Timothy Sandefur, the concept of law includes certain rational elements such as clear formal rules and procedures, without which a legislative enactment cannot be ‘law’ in any real sense. He explains it this way: ‘Law is the use of government’s coercive powers in the service of some general principle; that is, under some intelligible theoretical regularity, and not based on the mere ipse dixit of the legislative body. Law is the use of coercion for public purposes, not for the personal interest of the lawmaking authority.’ So understood the Trump administration’s disfigurement of both the letter and spirit of the law to fit the personal vanity and passing vendettas of the person who, let us remember, was originally appointed by the American founders to preside over the faithful execution of the law is itself a shameful repudiation of the elementary principles of American jurisprudence.” (01/08/26)
- Nostalgia for American Hypocrisy
Source: The Atlantic
by George Packer“At least we used to pretend that we believed in something besides military power.” (01/08/26)
- AI and the End of Common Culture
Source: Quillette
by Samuel Fitoussi“The year is 1983. At 8pm sharp on 28 February, 106 million viewers tune in to watch the M*A*S*H finale. The next day, everyone from truck drivers to corporate attorneys had the same reference points. For years, M*A*S*H functioned as a national ritual, allowing families across the country to laugh at the same jokes and debate the same plot twists. Of course, it wasn’t just M*A*S*H. Everyone could assume that nearly everyone else had seen shows like Seinfeld or Dallas. … This anchored social life in common references and fostered a sense of collective identity. This logic could also be applied to cinema … music … video games … or even software … Today, that sense of shared cultural experience has eroded and been replaced by a landscape of personalised content that appeals to ever-diminishing niches.” (01/08/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/01/08/ai-and-the-end-of-common-culture-cinema-music-software/
- The Fifth Column, episode 539
Source: The Fifth Column
“The Memory Hole & the Rent Freeze Trap (w/ Josh Barro).” (01/08/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/the-memory-hole-and-the-rent-freeze
- Capital Record, episode 278
Source: National Review
“Will Mayor Mamdani Give President Trump His Phone Back Please?” (01/08/26)
- The Libertarian Angle, 01/08/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trump’s Abduction and Rendition of Maduro.” (01/08/26)
- Advisory Opinions, 01/08/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Prosecuting Foreign Leaders.” (01/08/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/prosecuting-foreign-leaders/
- The Good Fight, 01/08/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“The Good Fight Club: Maduro’s Capture, Trump’s Foreign Policy Vision, and the Future of American Power.” (01/08/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/the-good-fight-club-maduros-capture